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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22567909">Stories of the Second Self: Under the Fairy Hill</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner'>John_Steiner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [77]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Urban Fantasy - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:56:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22567909</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Under Yasmin's tutelage Walter Kovich has expanded his repertoire of magic. Then , Yasmin decides to reveal to Walter a more powerful force that is carving tunnels of stone across the country. Witnessing scenery and creatures straight out of fairy tales amazes even Walter, a Fae elder. His suspicions about where Yasmin is from who she associated with are confirmed, however, he is also smitten by what more she can offer.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [77]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stories of the Second Self: Under the Fairy Hill</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The entire stone-rise smelled of Earth to Walter, but in a good way. However, it got more intense as Yasmin led him into basement levels lower than he'd been before. Yasmin was the only human living in the stone-rise compound. Yet, Walter realized she was the best at magic of anyone he met, including himself and he was a Fae.</p><p>Two levels below ground put Walter in almost complete darkness, however Yasmin continue downward. Walter's fiance, Laura brought him to this compound, and he chose to stay more to learn from Yasmin than than because Laura wanted it.</p><p>One more level, and Walter saw green illumination. The bottom of the stairwell was more than twice as far down from the ceiling than any of the prior floors. Yasmin made the stone structure pretty much grow from the bedrock using glyphs of power, which Walter still struggled to learn. She was accepting of anyone who wished to live here. Just that the other floors clearly weren't accommodating to giants.</p><p>On this level, though, a giant could walk around almost without having to stoop. Indeed, even above Walter never had to worry about scraping his antlers against any of the ceilings. Then, half way down to the floor, Walter's breath caught in his throat.</p><p>Was he outside? So much green, and not just vines or grass, but whole trees growing in here. There was brook zigzagging through a stone trough, and ahead arched a broken tree. Except, Walter noticed with a closer look, it was a massive root curved into a bridge over the water.</p><p>"What do you think?" Yasmin, with her high school aged voice, bid of him.</p><p>"How does all this grow," Walter asked, "And where's the green light coming from?"</p><p>"Oh, it's not green," she answered and pointed up.</p><p>Following where Yasmin indicated, Walter looked and saw what he took to be fireflies on the ceiling. Except, he didn't think fireflies should glow so brightly. "What are those?"</p><p>"Fairies," Yasmin replied, "People changed. Why not other beings of nature?"</p><p>"Can I hold one?" Walter asked, suddenly reduced to a six years old's sense of wonder.</p><p>"Certainly," Yasmin allowed, and raised a hand up to offer perch.</p><p>Several dropped off the ceiling and spiraled down to her, all with a buzzing that seemed to tickle his ear. Stepping closer to Yasmin, who was taller than himself, Walter gazed with bewilderment at the creatures.</p><p>They were indeed fireflies, as Walter grew up in a suburb where they thrived, but these had changed to approach the portions and appearance that were almost humanoid. Granted, their faces were closer to insect, mandibles and all, but the shape of their heads neared that of a tiny people. The brightly glowing abdomen shrunk in size to where it might pass for a tail, and the thorax looked more like an exoskeletal chest and torso.</p><p>The upper two pairs of legs, being so close together, worked more like a single pair of arms. The ends of the upper legs even resembled little hands, with one leg providing the thumb with a single claw-like prong, and the other offering a single wide finger sporting two prongs.</p><p>The one Walter stared at most turned up to study him in turn. It took flight to land on one of his antlers, so he reached up to cup his hand around it. Gently, he took the thing off his antler and watched it climb around the back of his hand. The light from its abdomen and the two illuminated spots from the backs of its shoulders felt like warm sunlight.</p><p>Indeed, Walter realized, the light was the color of the sun. "Are they giving light for the plants to grow?"</p><p>"Yes, and at night they go outside to feed, so that the plants have a nighttime in their cycle," Yasmin revealed, "You see, Gaia is balancing nature for us, but we have to help her along."</p><p>Walter had seen enough nature documentaries to know ecosystems needed an input of energy from somewhere, and Yasmin's description filled that gap. Though, he suspect she had more to show.</p><p>"How far does this go?" Walter asked.</p><p>"All the way to Columbus," Yasmin answered, "That's how I got to Cincinnati without notice. They showed me the way."</p><p>Yasmin had waved at the fairy, to which Walter's attention returned. "Are they people?"</p><p>"In their own way." It was Yasmin's way of saying they were still just animals, as she had described other animals, and plants, as being their own form of people.</p><p>"So no wishes then," Walter checked with her.</p><p>"If you wish to find places in the dark they grant it," Yasmin suggested, "But they do have a magic about them. We can learn from it."</p><p>Walter knew that Yasmin had been part of a nature cult in Columbus, Ohio that had fought with the National Guard during federal occupation, but Yasmin had previously told him she didn't prescribe to the more extreme and militant part of the Gaia ideology. He didn't care about ideology, just the power.</p><p>The more magic Walter learned the more he wanted to learn, and the greater his compulsion to use what he had. He barely realized that he practiced magic more than the time he spent with Laura. She had complained about it once with someone else in the compound, while he was nearby and caught himself quietly mouthing a mockery of her gripe.</p><p>A buzzing warble of firefly song started, and distracted Walter from his thoughts. It stood more or less upright on his hand, which was turned so that the firefly was horizontal. He rotated his hand to bring it up, and let his skin bath in the warmth of its light. It explored his hand a little further before taking off from the tip of his index finger.</p><p>Returning his gaze to Yasmin, Walter felt his heart rate pick up. She developed a curious look at him, and that's when Walter suspected he might love her more that Laura. Though, from Yasmin's expression, that wouldn't go anywhere, sparing Walter the slippery slope of cheating on Laura.</p>
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